Paying for clinical education: fact or fiction?

Changes in the health care system, brought on by cost control measures, are expected to have an impact on clinical education opportunities in allied health. There has been speculation that clinical facilities, upon which academic programs depend for clinical education, will begin charging fees for allowing students to rotate through their facilities. A survey was conducted of 43 schools and colleges of allied health, comprising 274 programs in 46 different disciplines to ascertain the extent to which programs were paying for clinical education. Two basic research questions were addressed: (1) to what extent are academic institutions supporting direct costs for clinical education of students and (2) to what extent are academic institutions exchanging resources with clinical facilities in which their students are receiving clinical education? Data were collected on cash payments made to clinical facilities, payment of preceptors, academic faculty in direct supervision of students in the clinics, tuition credit bank for clinical supervisors, university provision of inservice training for the clinical faculty, and university provision of equipment for use by students in the clinical facility. Results indicate that very few programs are making cash payments--2.2% in academic health centers and 10.6% in non-academic health centers (four-year colleges). In lieu of cash payments, a number of resource exchanges take place between educational institutions and clinical facilities.